Contents

Plot

The story is about a little girl named Sophie, a name inspired
by the author's granddaughter Sophie Dahl; Roald's mother was Sofie
Magdalene Hesselberg Dahl. One night when Sophie couldn't fall
asleep during the "witching hour", she sees a giant
blowing something into the bedroom windows down the street. The
giant notices her; although she tries to hide in her bed, he
reaches through the window and carries her away to his home in
giant country.

Fortunately for Sophie, she has been abducted by the world's
only benevolent giant, the Big Friendly Giant or
BFG. Operating in the strictest secrecy, the BFG catches good dreams, with help of his giant ears he can hear
the dreams and its contents (which manifest themselves in misty
Dream Country as floating, blob-like objects) and blows them via a
trumpet-like blowpipe into the bedrooms of
children. When he catches a nightmare, he explodes it, bottles it
forever, or sometimes uses it to start fights among his neighboring
mean giants. The BFG has a very pleasant character, oftentimes
misusing words and having difficulty in grammar. He often writes
down mixtures of dreams for children. Sophie teaches him how to
speak properly and in the end, it is revealed that the story was
written and told by the BFG himself.

The other giants are not so pleasant; each night they go out
into the world to steal and eat "human beans", especially children.
There is little else for them to eat where they live; the BFG,
because he refuses to eat people, must survive on a revoltingly
bitter and sour vegetable known as a
snozzcumber. Luckily he is also able to make a
delicious drink called frobscottle, which is fizzy
and infinitely refreshing. It is rather unusual in that the bubbles in the
drink travel downwards and therefore cause the drinker to break wind instead of
burp; this causes noisy flatulence known as
Whizzpoppers.

Sophie and the BFG become friends. Eventually, Sophie persuades
the BFG that something must be done to stop the anthropophagous, or cannibalistic, giants.
Together they develop a plan to get the Queen of England
to help them. The BFG mixes a dream which will show the Queen what
the giants do; when complete, it is the worst nightmare she has
ever encountered. They set off for Buckingham Palace and blow the dream
into the Queen's bedroom. The BFG then leaves Sophie on the Queen's
windowsill and retreats into the palacegardens to hide.

When the Queen awakens, Sophie tells her that all of her dream
was true. Because the dream included the knowledge that Sophie
would be there when she woke up, the Queen believes her and speaks
with the BFG. After considerable effort by the palace staff to
create a table, chair and cutlery of appropriate size for him to
use, the BFG is given a lavish breakfast, and the Queen begins work
on eliminating the other giants. She calls the King of Sweden and the Sultan of Baghdad to confirm the BFG's
story- the giants having visited those locations on the previous
two nights-, then summons the Head of the Army and the Marshal of theAir Force. The
said officers, though initially belligerent and skeptical, are
brought to cooperate.

Eventually a huge fleet of helicopters follows the BFG to the giants'
homeland. While the child-eating giants are asleep, the Army ties
them up, hangs them under the helicopters, and after a brief
struggle with the Fleshlumpeater, flies them to London, where a special large pit has been
constructed from which they will not be able to escape. For their
punishment, the child-eating giants had to eat the gross, ukyslush
snozzcumber and yell/moan in embarrassment and humiliation.

Giants

There is a possible tenth giant, Sene the New Zealander-eating "Welly-Eating Giant"
is mentioned only once and is mysteriously never referred to again,
although this may simply be a reference to one of the known giants
under a different name.

Most of the nasty giants are only mentioned by name; some are
given a larger role, such as Fleshlumpeater, who is the nastiest of
them all, and Bloodbottler, who invades the BFG's cave early in the story. Later, the BFG narrates
the hunting methods of Childchewer, Gizzardgulper, and Meatdripper.
It is also remarked that each giant has his favorite hunting
ground, though they vary at times. Because all humans taste
differently, the giants have certain preferences; all detest Greece as a hunting ground, however. This is
because the flavors supposedly reflect the names and/or principal
exports of their native land:
therefore, Greeks taste
greasy, Danes taste canine, and Swedes taste both
sweet and sour, the English taste like Bread and butter pudding,
Irish taste of Spuds and the Scottish taste of Scotch
eggs and so on.